T4toria
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The Billy Banks Estate in Penarth, Cardiff flows west from Paget Terrace in an almost pristine sixties line. They have that mid-century failed social solution look about them. District heating stacks. Communal grass. Balconies. Grey pebble dash. Connecting walls perforated by chequer-board laid bricks. Today the flats themselves have largely been abandoned. There are hundreds of them, named after a curious mix of Welsh and English royalty - Prince Charles Court, Prince Llywelyn Flats, Prince Rhodri House. The windows are boarded with ventilated metal, the doors blocked and broken. Crap in the courtyards. Aluminium bell and intercom plates belted by stones, dented out of their recesses. In their time the blocks won prizes for their architecture. They also suffered the standard sink estate disasters of asbestos, damp, leaking water systems, and being belted out of shape just for the fun of it vandalism. They became a ghetto for the municipal dumping of problem families. Punk music like an electric saw day and night. Dope in the flowerbeds.
Most of the residents have been moved on apart from one. The estate is now boarded up with a large community of travellers who have taken residence on the outskirts.
source: www.peterfinch.co.uk/billy
DSC06776 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06771 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06763 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06758 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06748 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06746 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06731 by T4toria, on Flickr
Most of the residents have been moved on apart from one. The estate is now boarded up with a large community of travellers who have taken residence on the outskirts.
source: www.peterfinch.co.uk/billy
DSC06776 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06771 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06763 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06758 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06748 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06746 by T4toria, on Flickr
DSC06731 by T4toria, on Flickr
